Home Depot Q4 EPS Tops View; Sees Weak Earnings, Flat Sales In FY23; Stock Down In Pre-market

(RTTNews) - Home improvement retailer Home Depot, Inc. (HD) reported Tuesday nearly flat profit for its fourth quarter, while earnings per share increased and beat market estimates.

Further, the company announced that its board of directors approved a 10 percent increase in its quarterly dividend to $2.09 per share, which equates to an annual dividend of $8.36 per share.

The dividend is payable on March 23, to shareholders of record on the close of business on March 9.

Looking ahead for fiscal 2023, the company projects earnings-per-share-percent-decline to be mid-single digits and operating margin rate of approximately 14.5 percent.

Sales growth and comparable sales growth are expected to be approximately flat compared to fiscal 2022.

In fiscal 2022, net earnings were $17.1 billion or $16.69 per share, on sales of $157.4 billion, and comparable sales growth of 3.1 percent.

Further, Home Depot announced plans to invest around $1 billion in annualized compensation for frontline, hourly associates, beginning in the first quarter of fiscal 2023.

In the fourth quarter, net earnings were $3.362 billion or $3.30 per share, compared to $3.352 billion or $3.21 per share in the same period of fiscal 2021.

For the quarter, earnings per share increased 2.8 percent.

On average, 28 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $3.28 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales for the fourth quarter were $35.831 billion, an increase of 0.3 percent from last year's $35.719 billion. Analysts expected sales of $35.97 billion.

Comparable sales decreased 0.3 percent, and comparable sales in the U.S. decreased 0.3 percent.

In pre-market activity on the NYSE, HD shares were losing around 3.9 percent to trade at $305.51.

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